The Underestimated - Issue 05
The Diversity X newsletter showcasing the underestimated founders making a positive impact in the world and keeping you up to date on the Diversity X journey.
What’s is coming up in this issue?
📖 Joking, Not Joking
📚 Community Support
👏🏾 Introducing the team
📰 Monthly update on what has been going on with Diversity X
🤝 🔦Spotlight on 5 Diversity X Founders’ Community members (three startups)
📆Upcoming events and plans
Joking, Not Joking
A man walks into an Investment Committee, looks around the room and sees three white men, in their late 40s or early 50s, staring back. The man says to the Investment Committee “you guys could do with improving your diversity in this room”. One of the men, laughs and says, “what do you mean? We have diversity in here. Sometimes I bring my two female, black labradors to the meeting with me.”. WTAF! This is a TRUE STORY that was told to us by a founder only last week.
“We have a diversity problem in VC”. No sh** Sherlock!
This is not reflective of all in VC, but the numbers themselves show, that it appears
According to Crunchbase and reflected in this Business Insider article, VC funding reached a global record high in 2021 at US$643 billion yet 2.2% went to solo female founders, 1.3% to Black founders, and 2.1% to Latino founders.
A 2020 study showed that startups with diverse founding teams produced a median return multiple of 3.26, as compared with 2.5 for startups with white founding teams. Other similar studies have shown this to be correct.
The macro-economic situation is causing quarter-on-quarter reductions in VC capital deployment. With underestimated founders™, the problem is exasperated (see here). This is perverse to Diversity X. With data clearly showing that underestimated founders™ typically performing better, and having an ability to deliver more with less, doesn’t this smack of leaving tonnes of cash on the table by actually accelerating the reduction on capital going towards underestimated founders?
So back to the “joke” at the beginning. VCs and LPs are letting down underestimated founders. But also, VCs, as fiduciaries, are letting down their LPs, because there is no way ICs will be have the competence to find and attract the best underestimated founders. This is where Diversity X is on hand to help LPs take advantage.
Let’s chat if you are an angel investor, HNWI, or family office - I can explain the Diversity X thesis and how it creates opportunity in what looks a bear market.
Community Support
Membership of the Diversity X Founders Community is simple. Do you identify as an underestimated founder™ (person of colour, female, LQBTQ+, disabled, neuro-diverse, or older)? If so, then welcome home. This is a safe space for you to share, learn, grow, collaborate, debate, support, and build genuine connection. It will always be free to belong to this community.
If you would like to join this diverse group of start ups and scale ups led by brilliant, unique underestimated founders™, the contact Kevin at kevin@diversityx.vc.
Here are some of what some of our community members feel about Diversity X
Aisha Jade - Carisips
Karishma Gupta - Satatland
Introducing the Team
The Diversity X team is growing. In the last month, we have added support by bringing in Maria O’Sullivan-Abeyratne and Marquis Caines. Maria will provide administrative support and Marquis is our data analytics and business development guru. Please join me in welcoming Maria and Marquis (team M&M) to the Diversity X family and wishing them great success in their roles. Both are underestimated founders™ in their own right.
We continue to look to build out our Advisory Board, so if you feel you can add value, let’s have a conversation.
News from the Diversity X journey
Highlights over the last month
💥 Our Founder’s Community is growing - 157 (at the last newsletter issue date) → 237 today! I had hoped to report hitting the 250 mark today - but it was not to be. This will continue to rise, both from the onboarding from SuperPitch and organically. That said, the increase in numbers has not detracted from the activity with huge support amongst the community members. This will continue to rise, both from the onboarding from SuperPitch and organically.
💥Being a sponsor at London Tech Week was a phenomenal experience, and in part led to conversation over the last month with over a 100 underestimated founders.
💥 We held our first in-person social event at the London offices of Mills & Reeve with around 40 plus in attendance. See some photos here. Thank you to Matt Skipper and the entire team at Mills & Reeves.
💥We sponsored a pod in Elevating Founders at London Tech Week (see here for photos).
💥 386 views of issue 4 of this newsletter (up by 82 from issue 4) and 183 subscribers (to date) (up from 150 at issue 4 release).
💥Working on the Diversity X Advisory Board. If you are interested in playing a real part in the Diversity X journey, email kevin@diversityx.vc.
💥Featured in the first Angel Investing School newsletter - thank you AIS and Andy Ayim.
💥Massive shout out to Jon Sun at Horizon VC for inviting me into the Emerging Managers group. Honestly one of the best group and i’m letting so much for the growing group of emerging managers. Also, massive shout out to Patrick and Leo of Form Ventures for your time, help, and support.
💥 Diversity X celebrated its 1st birthday on Junbe 24th. What a first year! Progress is being made and real help and support being provided to underestimated founders™. This is a generational journey but we are all proud of the steps that have been taken.
💥 Thank you to everyone who has supported the journey so far.
Meet the Underestimated
Sophia Parvizi-Wayne - Kanjo
The Founder:
Sophia founded Kanjo with her co-founder Stefan following an eating disorder in her teens which resulted in a nationwide campaign to get mental health on the national curriculum. Kanjo believes that every family deserves to nourish their mental development together. Before Kanjo, she founded Trado during her time at Duke University to preserve family stories using natural language processing. On the side, she used to run at an international level but now considers herself a pro-hobby athlete.
The Startup:
Kanjo Health aims to translate science to nourish the mental development of children so that every family can be healthier and happier. Kanjo’s goals in the next 18 months are to help 500,000 parents understand their children better and to set a gold standard of using digital biomarkers for mental development.
They do this through the Kanjo Health mobile platform that both improves communication between families and predicts better mental health outcomes. Kanjo’s approach is two fold. The application provides engaging ways for children to learn and develop an emotional toolbox. However, using digital biomarkers and intelligent design, these activities are designed to provide personalized insights into their emotional and psychological development. This information is then fed back to the parent along with advice and support.
💥How can you help Kanjo Health? They are currently raising to close their ASA in two weeks before raising Seed in September. Backed by Entrepreneur First, other investors include the funds Crista Galli and 3SV and notable angels including Maya Ghosn, Amrit Saxena, Softbank MD Catherine Lenson and Lara Nuschowitz. Message me and I can make an introduction to the founder.
Sara Tateno and Emily Tredget - Happity
The Founders:
Sara Tateno
One of the first families to take Shared Parental Leave in 2015, Sara re-trained as a software developer whilst her husband took on the role of full-time carer for their two young children. Prior to founding Happity, she spent over a decade in Strategy & Business Development at L.E.K. Consulting and the BBC. She also holds a 1st Class in Economics from Cambridge, and was named on the Women in Software Power List 2021.
Emily
Having survived PND, Emily previously founded MummyLinks app and was a prominent campaigner for Maternal Mental Health awareness. Before becoming a mum, she was a Strategy Consultant at Booz Allen, and Group S&OP Manager at Innocent Drinks. She holds an MEng in Materials, Economics & Management from Oxford, and was nominated by the UK Parliamentary Committee for Petition of the Year Award 2021.
The Startup:
Happity aims to be the world's leading marketplace for parent & child activities.
Launched in London by a mission-driven all-female team. The platform goes way beyond the technology, and unites a community of small businesses passionate about tackling loneliness for new mums - up to 1 in 5 experience postnatal mental health issues and over 90% regularly experience loneliness. To date, they have processed nearly £3m in bookings with over 3,000 active class providers and more than 130k parents using the platform every month.
They work closely with the NHS, with some CCGs now 'socially prescribing' Happity to new parents, and is an approved ads supplier for NHS London in helping to promote the uptake of the child vaccination programme.
Operating in an overlooked sector worth over £2bn in the UK alone, Happity is a business with great growth potential and genuine social merit.
Previously backed by ADV, Ignite Accelerator, and Ada Ventures.
💥What can you do to support this startup? Happity are raising their seed round to fuel UK wide roll out and invest in the tech (EIS eligible). An allocation is currently open to the public via Crowdcube here: https://www.crowdcube.com/happity
For more info please email kevin@diversityx.vc.
Charlene Hurlock & Vicky Fuller - Swoperz
The Founders:
Charlene Hurlock
Charlene is the Co-Founder of Swoperz. As a mother of a 9-year-old daughter, she found it difficult financially to keep up with her growing pre-teen. She reached out to her friendship groups to swap preloved clothing. Charlene’s daughter loved wearing her friend's unwanted clothes and started to experiment with new styles that gave her newfound confidence.
Charlene's personal mission is to empower kids to express themselves through pre-loved fashion, creating a safe environment for kids to learn positive consumer habits and build relationships within the community based on sharing pre-loved clothing.
Vicky Fuller
Vicky Fuller is the Co-Founder of Swoperz. She was approached by Charlene to swap her daughter's pre-loved clothing and was overwhelmed by her 11-year-old daughter's positive response. Vicky was surprised at her daughter's inability to make the connection between fashion and its environmental impact. She is committed to making all kids as passionate about swopping as they are about buying brand-new.
The Startup:
Swoperz puts teens and pre-teens in control of their own style by giving them a safe, community-focused space to swop pre-loved fashion quickly and easily. We believe in empowering kids to take ownership of who they are and how they express themselves.
Swoperz has created a safe online marketplace for teens and pre-teens to connect with their peers, unlocking opportunities for them to express their individuality through style and fashion.
💥How can you help Swoperz? Sign up to the marketplace. And get ready to support them with their pre-seed/seed raise in early autumn - email kevin@diversityx.vc for an intro and to find out more about the Swoperz raise.
Upcoming Events
6 July - Diversity in Tech Summit and Top 100 Asians in Tech Awards - Kevin Withane will be a panelist and a judge.
August TBC - Diversity X summer picnic
August TBC - Pitch Day 2.
And that’s a wrap for this month….
Reach out with any questions to kevin@diversityx.vc
INVESTORS - let’s chat.
Underestimated Founders - come join a community that is welcoming and a safe space.
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